Semi-Automatic
by sparklyturtle
Summary: The footage of that first Titan tearing through the Bay had been plastered all across Time Square. The screams across the city as people watched on in terror, that look in her mother's eyes as she held her tight to her side, would haunt Annabeth to her dying day.
1. Night falls with gravity

When the first attack happened, Annabeth Chase was seven and staying with her mother is New York. She remembered the last time she'd seen her father, back in San Francisco right before she'd gotten on the plane.

"It's only until we get settled into the house, Annie," he'd sworn, kissing her forehead. "A couple of weeks, at most. _I promise_."

The footage of that first Titan tearing through the Bay had been plastered all across Time Square. The screams across the city as people watched on in terror, that look in her mother's eyes as she held her tight to her side, would haunt Annabeth to her dying day.

Six days and thirty-five miles later, they managed to nuke the beast out of existence, but three cities had already been destroyed, crushed. Tens of thousands of lives had already been lost.

Her mother had changed after that day. Something had broken in her.

The world mourned their loses, but eventually, people had to move on.

Annabeth enrolled in a school in Manhattan, her mother returned to work in her research facility, and life went on. It was only a matter of time before life _had_ _to_ return to normal.

Until six months later, when a second monster attacked Manila, and then a third in Cabo, until finally the world realised that these demons weren't going to quit.

They set up Shatterdomes all along the Pacific Rim, mainly one in San Francisco.

Athena Chase put all her time into research, trying to find something, _anything_ , that could make the slightest difference to help the humanity win. She ended up being called to San Francisco and was charged with inventing a weapon to defeat the Titans with.

That's when the Jaegers were born.


	2. Taking my only friend I know

_Anchorage, Alaska February 29_ _th_ _, 2020_

Zeus Godric woke to wailing sirens and his younger brother hitting his head.

"Get out, Sid," he said, waving a hand at his manic-looking brother.

" _Oh my God, get up_ ," Poseidon moaned, whacking his brother's head once more for good measure. "Don't you hear the damn sirens?!"

"You heard Athena," Zeus groaned, throwing his legs over the side of the bunk. "We can't do anything until they send a replacement for Argo."

He looked down at his brother, but Poseidon was holding a small picture in his hands, smiling softly down at it. Zeus knew _exactly_ what picture it was.

"They don't care," Poseidon shrugged, placing the photo down on the bench and turning back to face Zeus. "Biggest Cat 3 they've ever seen."

"Why are you enjoying this?" Zeus cried, gesturing to the huge grin plastered across his brother's face.

"I'm not," Poseidon smirked, running a hand through his hair. Zeus couldn't help but notice that his wedding ring was missing.

"Hey kid," Zeus said, reaching up to touch his brother's cheek. "Don't get cocky."

Then he slapped him before walking out the door.

"Well that was just _rude_ ," Poseidon said in shock, turning to chase after his brother.

They headed to the Drivesuit room, but there was an empty suit to Zeus's left as he stepped into his own.

They felt so important, like _gods_ , as they made their way to their jaeger.

Argo Blue stood in the centre of the Shatterdome, towering over everything in her midst. She was one of the few nuclear out there, but no matter what people said about her, the Godric brothers loved her more than anything.

The two men stepped into Argo, taking their places; Zeus in the middle and Poseidon to his right. They ignored the left side.

"So what's the plan here?" Zeus asked, speaking into the coms.

"Mornin' to you, too," Grover Underwood's voice cracked through.

"Good morning," Zeus sneered.

"How'd that date go last night?" Poseidon asked, fixing the straps on his chest.

"She loved me," Grover sighed. "Her boyfriend- not so much."

"She'll dump his ass, don't you worry," Poseidon said sympathetically, pulling a face at his brother.

"Engage drop, Mr Underwood," another voice called over the coms. "Morning gentlemen."

"Engaging drop, ma'am."

"Athena," Zeus said, immediately standing up straighter as the AI kicked in. "So, how are we going to handle this?"

"We've modified Argo enough that you should be able to cope just the two of you, alright?" she said. "At worst, you get a migraine afterwards."

"You sure about that?" Poseidon said, raising an eyebrow. He seemed proud of himself when they heard Athena groan.

"Do you think I'd send you out there if I wasn't?" she snapped.

"You don't want me to answer that," Poseidon smirked, pushing a button above him.

"Sid, cut it," Zeus warned his younger brother who just shrugged at him. "Athena, if you're sure about this-"

"I'd never put you in danger, Zeus, you know that," she replied, her voice suddenly very sincere. "No matter how much I want _some_ of you to die on a regular basis."

"Why is everyone being so rude today?" Poseidon cried, his voice breaking as his eyes widened.

Zeus smirked at his brother, but felt a sudden dread in the pit of his stomach. Poseidon was always so confident, so charming and just the right amount of arrogant. Yet looking at him right then, Zeus could see the fear and terror in the back of his manic green eyes. He thought back to the photo Poseidon had left behind in the dorm, thought about their wives sitting at home worrying, thought about his own children and their mother.

He stopped, shocked when he suddenly thought of the little boy back home who may never get to know his father.

Looking once more at his baby brother, he realised he couldn't let that happen.

"Prepare for neural handshake, gents," said another voice. Zeus smiled when at the sound of Chiron's voice. "Starting in 15 seconds."

"Ready to get in my head, kid?" Zeus sighed, looking to his right.

"I have a permanent residence there, bro," Poseidon winked, his eyes wild with excitement and fear.

"Pilot-to-pilot connection," the AI called. "Protocol sequence."

Zeus saw Poseidon brace himself, his feet separating to balance himself. Zeus preferred to stare straight ahead and tense himself, something he was good at.

"Neural handshake initiated."

The Drift was an experience quite unlike any other, Zeus thought.

It was ingenious Jaeger tech, developed by Athena herself many years ago, based on DARPA jet fighter neural systems. The two pilots mind-melded with the body of the machine to become one entity.

There was always a flash of light first. That bright, terrifying, white light which made him think of death, before he saw his brother's life flash before his eyes.

In order to become one, they had to share their memories. Zeus saw the usual images of their dad screaming when they were kids, saw Hestia's first birthday. He saw the first time his brother had met _her_ , saw the day he had been told he was marrying his wife. He felt his brother's regrets, but that was nothing new.

What surprised him were the recent images which surfaced. Now, he saw Poseidon's goodbyes- to their mother and sister, to his wife and child (both of whom didn't really seem all that bothered), and then his real goodbye. He saw her and the boy, felt the crack as the door shut between them.

He was pulled out of his brother's memories, breathless and feeling strange.

"Neural handshake…" Grover's voice came through. "…strong and holding, guys."

"Centre hemisphere is calibrating," Zeus said, checking his display.

"Right hemisphere calibrating," Poseidon answered.

They both paused, awaiting the final response, but sighed when they realised it would never come.

"Gentlemen," Chiron said sternly. "You are to hold the miracle mile off Anchorage. Copy?"

"Copy that, sir," Zeus replied, casting a glance at his brother.

"Sir," Poseidon said, pointing to the radar in front of him. "There's a civilian vessel in the Gulf, though-"

"You are protecting a city of over two million people, Mr Godric," the Marshall sighed. "You will not be risking their lives for the sake of another ten."

Poseidon clenched his jaw, an eyebrow slightly raised as he glared at the coms.

"Am I clear?" came a stern question.

"Yes, sir," Zeus sighed, turning off the coms for the moment. "That's _cold_."

"You know what I'm thinking," Poseidon said, after a beat, a smile playing on his lips.

"I'm in your brain, _moron_."

"Well then," he grinned. "Let's go fishing."

"Hey, kid," Zeus said, his voice low. "We're gonna talk about all that when we get back."

"Talk about _what_ , Z," his brother said, his face falling. "There's nothing I can do about it, is there?"

"There has to be _something_ ," Zeus said, staring back at him, stormy-blue meeting sea-green. "We need to talk about it either way, Sid."

 _Focus on_ this _, first_.

"Here we go!" Zeus cried, pushing aside the matter for now.

"C'mon, bro!"

The sea was stormy and choppy as they began their march out. The radar picked up the boat easily enough, a tiny speck as the blob of the Titan fast approached.

It happened fast, Argo's arm reaching down and scooping the fishing boat out of the water.

"Ship secure."

The Titan appeared on the horizon, a terrifying shark-like creature with fluorescent yellow stripes and a sharp point on its head. It screamed, sounding like some horrifying nightmare.

Yet the brothers didn't back down.

"Adjust the torque," Zeus told his brother, his voice strong and steady.

"On it," Poseidon said, already working on the task.

"Torque locked," the AI confirmed.

They grunted in unison, and somewhere in the back of his head he heard Poseidon contemplating how odd piloting felt with just the two of them.

" _Focus, Sid,_ " he growled, glaring at the Titan as it raced towards them, arms outreached.

 _Shoot him, then._

The released two shots into the beast before it could hurt them. It screeched again as it fell into the uneasy sea, disappearing beneath the waves.

"Discharge reading, sir," Grover's voice calls. "Plasma cannon in the shallow shelves… seven miles off the coastal line, sir."

"Argo," Chiron said, his voice heavy with anger. "What the hell is going on?"

"Job's done, sir," Poseidon smirked. "Just bagged our fifth kill."

"You disobeyed a direct order!"

" _True_ , sir," Zeus said calmly. "Although we intercepted the Titan _and_ saved everyone."

"Just get back to your post," the Marshall snarled.

"Yes, sir," Poseidon smiled as they both began to turn.

"Titan signature rising!" Grover cried over the coms. "That thing's still alive, sir!"

"We're still getting a signature!" Chiron barked. "Just grab the boat and get out of there right now _,_ you copy? Grab the boat and get out of there _now_!"

The two brothers grunted, curses and sounds of disbelief flying through their heads.

"Take it, Zee!" Poseidon cried, both of them throwing the left of the jaeger at the monster as it emerged from the water, screaming louder than ever.

It ran at them, it jagged head pointing straight towards them. They held up their hands against the oncoming attack, prepared to fight this battle.

Darkness fell across Zeus' eyes for a moment, suddenly unable to keep control of so much of their jaeger.

 _ZEUS!_

"Left arm has gone cold!" Grover's voice called out in panic.

"It went through the damn hull!" Poseidon cried in outrage, wincing at the sudden pain in his left arm. "Zee, c'mon, you can't do that to me!"

"I know!" Zeus yelled, moving with his brother. "It's just too much without him!"

"I know, Zee," Poseidon yelled back, looking at his brother with foggy eyes. "But you need to listen to me! You need to-"

Poseidon's speech turned into screams of terror as the Titan's huge claws ripped him out from the hull.

"NO!" Zeus yelled, reaching for his younger brother.

Poseidon screamed, his eyes wide and terrified as he stared at his brother for help.

Zeus screamed again, but it all faded away into nothing but pain and terror.

"Second discharge fried the coms, sir. I'm not getting any signals."

"No signatures at all?"

"None, sir. What do we do now?"


	3. The earth turns from sanity

_5 years later_

 _Alaska Base- Closing Day_

"The Titans are adapting. _Evolving_."

"We're losing Jaegers faster than we can build them!"

"Lima, Seattle, Vladivostok-"

"Category 4 Titans are now coming through the Breach!"

Chiron glared up at the twelve screens in front of him, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Marshal," the British representative said, rolling his eyes down at Chiron. "Surely you can see that the Jaegers are not a viable line of defence anymore."

"I am aware," Chiron growled, gritting his teeth.

"Those are _our_ rangers that die," Hermes Castellan snapped from Chiron's right side.

"Every single time a Jaeger falls _we_ are the ones who must pick up the pieces," Athena cried from her wheelchair. "The UN has scarcely given enough funding for the development of these facilities so I fail to see why-"

She started coughing suddenly, Hermes rushing to her side as she fell forward in a coughing fit.

"And perhaps you are a good example as to _why_ we did not grant much funding to your research, Ms Spiros."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermes snarled, snapping back to glare at the Australian official who had dared speak.

"Well, clearly, your damn Jaeger technology has done more harm than good, has it not?" the woman cried in outrage.

"How _dare you_ say-"

"Do not rise, Hermes," Chiron said softly, holding out a hand to stop him before turning to face the screens once more. "I'm asking you for _one last chance_."

"Excuse me, marshal?" the British rep asked.

"One final assault," Chiron said calmly. "With everything we've got."

"The Jaeger programme is _dead_ , marshal," the Japanese official said, shaking his head. "Do what you wish with the Jaegers, but you will receive no more funding from the UN."

And with that, the screens went black.


	4. I'm never what I like

_British Columbia, Canada_

 _March 16_ _th_ _, 2032_

Grover Underwood yanked his scarf up over his nose.

His nose was bright red, his eyes were watering and his hands were that cold he couldn't feel them anymore.

Basically, he hated Canada.

"If you don't mind me asking, why were _you_ sent, Mr Underwood?" asked a man in a hardhat beside him.

"To, uh, check construction, of course," Grover said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't entirely sure, himself.

Hermes had just said that this was the place to go, that there was something very important to be found in Victoria.

All Grover had found was snow and the beginning of pneumonia.

"You'll know what I mean when you find it, kid," he'd said. "Trust me on that one."

"Trust him, my ass," Grover grunted, following the foreman as he walked ahead.

The cover was that he was checking construction on the Wall, following a recent attack nearby. Grover failed to see why someone from the last Shatterdome should be sent, but, much to his surprise, people seemed to buy it.

"We're making it more stable than ever, sir," the foreman said, gesturing the Wall.

Grover looked up at the Wall, but had to lean back just to take it all in.

The Wall stood well over 800 feet tall, and went on in both directions for as far as the eye could see. It was ingeniously engineered and impeccably built.

It didn't make any difference, though.

The foreman was giving Grover a lesson in infrastructure when there was a roar from somewhere behind them.

Both men turned suddenly, the foreman cursing when he realised what was going on. He sprinted to mess hall which stood about 100 metres from them.

Grover took a second before sighing and following him.

By the time he reached the mess hall, the foreman was screaming his head off at two other men who just stared at the ground. It was clear that a fight had broken out between the two.

The first was a small, squat man who was being held back by two other men. He glared at the foreman as though questioning his right to yell at him before turning his glare to his opponent.

Grover glanced at the other man who stood to his left. He was far taller than any of the other people in the hall, a mop of pitch-black hair covering his face as he stared at a spot on the ground. He hands were clenched at his sides, still, and Grover could feel the anger radiating from him.

"Just some stupid bastard boy, isn't he?" the first man laughed, waving his hands in the air and walking away.

The crowd began to break away, the foreman turning to Grover to apologise.

Grover caught the second guy looking at him. There was a split second when their eyes met, his narrowing as Grover's widened. He began to walk away, but Grover was stuck to the spot.

He had _those_ eyes.

It _couldn't_ be.

Although, maybe that's what Hermes had meant. Maybe Hermes had known all along.

There had always been _rumours_ , about the _three_ of them, but no one ever knew if they were _real_ or not. Maybe-

"Wait!"

The man turned slowly, staring Grover up and down with an eyebrow raised and a suspicious frown.

"Can I help you?" he asked, sounding confused.

 _He's from New York,_ Grover thought, picking up the accent. _It_ has _to be him._

"I was, uh," Grover started, suddenly realising he didn't actually have a plan. "If you, um-"

"Yes?" he said, his brows now furrowing.

"I was _wondering_ ," Grover said, finally finding his words. "What were you arguing with that guy about?"

"Oh, nothing really," the guy said, pushing the hair out of his eyes. He looked so young, Grover thought, even with a busted lip. He couldn't be much more than 20, which would definitely fit.

"It had to something," Grover tried.

"Something came on the TV about the Castellans in Sydney," he sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "He started talking shit about them and what they do."

"And you don't agree with him?"

"God, no!" he cried. "The Jaegers are more use than the crap we're doing here ever could be! They actually save millions of people!"

"You've got a good point there," Grover smiled, an idea forming in his head. "That could be you, y'know?"

"'Scuse me?" the guy laughed, a deep chuckle that seemed too familiar for comfort.

"I think you'd be valuable in Olympus," Grover shrugged. "I'm goin' there right now, if you want to come?"

"You expect me to believe that?" he smirked, shaking his head at Grover. "Nice story, man."

"Well, I'll be in the helicopter outside if you change your mind," Grover smiled, holding out a hand. "I'm Grover Underwood, by the way."

"Percy Jackson," he said, shaking Grover's outreached hand. "Thanks for the offer."

"I'd consider it, if I were you," Grover said as Percy began to walk away. "You don't wanna work on a dam wall for the rest of your life, do you?"

He saw the change in Percy's body, saw the shift as his shoulders tightened, saw his feet slow, saw his neck cock to the side ever so slightly.

Grover had got to him; that much was clear.

"You know where to find me!"


End file.
